Danilo joins Roald Dahl licensing programme

Danilo joins Roald Dahl licensing programme

DRi Licensing has added to the ever-growing Roald Dahl programme with a major new signing in greetings cards.

Danilo, Europe’s number one publisher of licensed greetings cards, has joined the licensing line-up with an extensive card range set for launch next spring.

The new Roald Dahl range will cover everyday as well as relations, ages and occasions including back to school, exam congratulations, good luck and teacher thank you cards. Fans will find their favourite characters featured on Danilo’s new cards including Matilda, Charlie, The BFG and James.

In addition to greetings cards, Danilo will also add striking new wrap and gift bags later in 2018.

Alicia Davenport, DRi Licensing’s Licensing Director said, “This year really has been a stand out one for the Dahl brand and we’re delighted to be adding to the success by welcoming Danilo to the licensing programme.

“Danilo’s cards capture the spirit, the fun and the quirkiness of Roald Dahl. They feature some of his most-loved literary heroes brilliantly depicted in Quentin Blake’s unmistakeable illustrations and the cards cover both everyday events and life’s more special occasions,” added Alicia.

As one of DRi Licensing’s most successful publishing brands, the Roald Dahl licensing programme goes from strength to strength. The Danilo signing follows hot on the heels of a momentous month for Roald Dahl which saw child-sized LEGO builds of six of Roald Dahl’s iconic heroes appearing at various UK locations, in celebration of Roald Dahl Day on 13th September.

Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter-pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG and many more brilliant stories.

He remains the World’s No.1 storyteller.

Born in Cardiff of Norwegian descent, Roald Dahl (1916–1990) joined the RAF at the age of 23 and began writing, initially for adults, after being injured in a plane crash during WW2.

Sitting in a hut at the bottom of his garden, surrounded by odd bits and pieces such as a suitcase (used as a footrest), his own hipbone (which he’d had replaced) and a heavy ball of metal foil (made from years’ worth of chocolate wrappers), he went on to write some of the world’s best-loved children’s stories. His first children’s story, James and the Giant Peach, was published in 1961, was a hit and every subsequent book became a best-seller.

Today, his stories are available in 58 languages and, by a conservative estimate, he has sold more than 250 million books. Many of these stories have also been adapted for stage and screen, including the 1971 film classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wes Anderson’s acclaimed Fantastic Mr Fox, Steven Spielberg’s spectacular adaptation of The BFG, the multi-award winning Matilda The Musical from the RSC with music by Tim Minchin and the stage musical production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, currently playing to sell-out audiences on Broadway.

Roald Dahl Day is the biggest author-led cultural moment globally – and is growing annually. In a poll commissioned by Canon in May 2017, Roald Dahl was voted the Greatest Storyteller of All Time. In June 2017, three books by Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and Matilda – topped a poll commissioned by the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals to find the UK’s favourite children’s book. In a 2015 Sainsbury’s poll to mark World Book Day – and find 50 books every child should read by the age of 16 – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the most recommended book and Roald Dahl was the most recommended children’s author.

Roald Dahl said, “If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”